In the field of electronics production, printed circuit boards or subassemblies may be produced on SMT fitting lines by surface mounting (e.g., surface mounted technology, SMT). However, for technical reasons, not every printed circuit board may be produced on every fitting line. The printed circuit boards may have different production times on the fitting lines. In addition, the maximum production time capacities of the fitting lines may not be exceeded.
The document DE 10 2009 013 353 B3 describes a method for equipping a fitting line.
The document entitled “Workload planning in small lot printed circuit board assembly” (OR Spectrum, Jun. 1, 1997, Vol. 19, No. 2, pages 147-157) by Hans-Otto Günther et al. describes workload planning during automated fitting of printed circuit boards with components.
The document entitled “Cell formation in PCB assembly based on production quantitative data” (European Journal of Operational Research, Sep. 1, 1993, Vol. 69, No. 3, pages 312-329) by Dino Luzzatto et al. describes a method for planning an operation for fitting printed circuit boards with components.
The document EP 0 478 361 A1 describes a method for fitting printed circuit boards with components. A production frequency of a printed circuit board type and the components used for production are taken into account.
The document entitled “Component Grouping for Circuit Board Assembly” by Sze Man Ting (Jan. 1, 1999) describes the grouping of components during automated fitting of printed circuit boards with components.
Printed circuit boards on fitting lines of a fitting system may be allocated manually or semi-automatically based on empirical values or heuristics. In practice, unbalanced allocations are made repeatedly, thereby causing high utilization of one component of a fitting line and low utilization of another component. As a result, the fitting system may not be optimally used.